Ohio Supreme Court elections, 2022
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Three seats on the Ohio Supreme Court were up for partisan election on November 8, 2022. A partisan primary was scheduled for May 3, 2022. Incumbents Pat Fischer (R) and Pat DeWine (R) won re-election, while Sharon L. Kennedy (R) defeated Jennifer L. Brunner (D) in the chief justice election.
Bolts reported that Ohio was one of four states where the 2022 elections had the potential to shift the partisan balance of the state’s highest court.[1][2] Heading into the election, Ohio's supreme court was made up of four Republican justices and three Democratic justices. Three seats held by Republicans were on the ballot in 2022. Republicans won all three seats and maintained their 4-3 majority on the court.
Incumbent Pat DeWine (R) ran for re-election against Marilyn Zayas (D). DeWine had served on the court since 2017. Zayas served as a judge on the Ohio First District Court of Appeals, a position she had held since 2016.
Incumbent Pat Fischer (R) ran for re-election against Terri Jamison (D). Fischer had been on the court since 2017. Jamison had served as a judge on the Ohio Tenth District Court of Appeals since 2021.
In the race for chief justice of the court, incumbent Maureen O'Connor (R) did not seek re-election due to age limits. At the time of the election, Ohio was one of 31 states with mandatory retirement ages for judges. In Ohio, judges had to retire after the term during which they turned 70.
Two associate justices on the court ran for the chief justice seat: Justice Jennifer L. Brunner (D) and Justice Sharon L. Kennedy (R). Brunner had served on the Ohio Supreme Court since 2021, and Kennedy had served on the Ohio Supreme Court since 2012. Kennedy won the election for the chief justice position, leaving the governor of Ohio with the authority to fill her vacancy on the court.
News 5 Cleveland's Morgan Trau wrote, "There are a few major issues that could be drastically altered depending on the makeup of the court." One of the issues Trau listed was redistricting.[3] In a series of 4-3 decisions in 2022, O'Connor joined the Democratic justices on the court in striking down redistricting maps drawn by the Ohio Redistricting Commission (ORC). Litigation challenging both the state legislative and congressional maps was ongoing at the time of the election. To read more about the legal challenges surrounding Ohio's 2020 redistricting process, click here.
Trau also listed abortion as a major issue for the court, saying "Arguably the most time-pressing issue at this point, the Ohio Supreme Court gets to decide if abortion laws are constitutional or not."[3] As of September 15, 2022, a court had temporarily suspended Ohio's abortion law, which restricted abortion at the threshold of six weeks since the last menstrual period.
This marked the first Ohio Supreme Court election where candidates were listed on the general election ballot with a party signifier next to their names. The change came after Governor Mike DeWine (R) signed SB 80 into law in 2021.[4] Politico's Zach Montellaro and Shia Kapos wrote, "For the first time in the state, candidates will have party affiliation next to their name on the general election ballot — previously they were nominated by the parties, but party affiliation was not listed for the general election — and the race would be moved up the ballot to be grouped with other statewide offices instead of being listed down below."[5]
Ohio last held state supreme court elections in 2020. Two seats were up for election. In the first, Kennedy won re-election against John P. O'Donnell (D) 55% to 45%. In the other, Brunner defeated incumbent Judith French (R) 55% to 45%.
Ohio was one of 30 states that held elections for state supreme court in 2022. That year, 84 of the 344 seats on state supreme courts were up for election. Of those, 64 were held by nonpartisan justices, 13 were held by Republican justices, and eight were held by Democratic justices. For more on the partisan affiliation of state supreme court justices, click here. For an overview of state supreme court elections in 2022, click here.
Candidates and results
Chief Judge
General election
General election for Ohio Supreme Court Chief Justice
Incumbent Sharon L. Kennedy defeated incumbent Jennifer L. Brunner in the general election for Ohio Supreme Court Chief Justice on November 8, 2022.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ |  | Sharon L. Kennedy (R) | 56.1 | 2,307,415 |
 | Jennifer L. Brunner (D)  | 43.9 | 1,807,133 | |
| Total votes: 4,114,548 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
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Democratic primary election
Democratic primary for Ohio Supreme Court Chief Justice
Incumbent Jennifer L. Brunner advanced from the Democratic primary for Ohio Supreme Court Chief Justice on May 3, 2022.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Jennifer L. Brunner | 100.0 | 445,711 |
| Total votes: 445,711 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
Republican primary election
Republican primary for Ohio Supreme Court Chief Justice
Incumbent Sharon L. Kennedy advanced from the Republican primary for Ohio Supreme Court Chief Justice on May 3, 2022.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Sharon L. Kennedy | 100.0 | 814,717 |
| Total votes: 814,717 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
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Fischer's seat
General election
General election for Ohio Supreme Court
Incumbent Pat Fischer defeated Terri Jamison in the general election for Ohio Supreme Court on November 8, 2022.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ |  | Pat Fischer (R) | 56.9 | 2,330,575 |
 | Terri Jamison (D) | 43.1 | 1,764,845 | |
| Total votes: 4,095,420 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
Democratic primary election
Democratic primary for Ohio Supreme Court
Terri Jamison advanced from the Democratic primary for Ohio Supreme Court on May 3, 2022.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Terri Jamison | 100.0 | 418,525 |
| Total votes: 418,525 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
Republican primary election
Republican primary for Ohio Supreme Court
Incumbent Pat Fischer advanced from the Republican primary for Ohio Supreme Court on May 3, 2022.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Pat Fischer | 100.0 | 788,538 |
| Total votes: 788,538 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
DeWine's seat
General election
General election for Ohio Supreme Court
Incumbent Pat DeWine defeated Marilyn Zayas in the general election for Ohio Supreme Court on November 8, 2022.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ |  | Pat DeWine (R) | 56.3 | 2,306,428 |
 | Marilyn Zayas (D) | 43.7 | 1,789,384 | |
| Total votes: 4,095,812 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
Democratic primary election
Democratic primary for Ohio Supreme Court
Marilyn Zayas advanced from the Democratic primary for Ohio Supreme Court on May 3, 2022.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Marilyn Zayas | 100.0 | 406,732 |
| Total votes: 406,732 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
Republican primary election
Republican primary for Ohio Supreme Court
Incumbent Pat DeWine advanced from the Republican primary for Ohio Supreme Court on May 3, 2022.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Pat DeWine | 100.0 | 719,162 |
| Total votes: 719,162 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
Justices not on the ballot
- Chief Justice Maureen O'Connor (R)
Voting information
- See also: Voting in Ohio
Voter turnout
The table below shows votes cast in each Ohio Supreme Court election through 2014 and the average number of votes cast in these races by year. It also shows votes cast in other statewide elections held each year.[6]
| Ohio Supreme Court voter turnout, 2014-2022 | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Year | Votes cast for each supreme court election held | Average votes cast for supreme court justice | Votes cast for President | Votes cast for Governor | Votes cast for U.S. Senate | |||
| 2022 | 4,114,548 | 4,095,420 | 4,095,812 | 4,101,927 | - | 4,134,877 | 4,133,342 | |
| 2020 | 4,966,765 | 4,869,892 | -[7] | 4,918,329 | 5,922,202 | - | - | |
| 2018 | 3,555,662 | 3,520,676 | -[7] | 3,538,169 | - | 4,429,582 | 4,410,898 | |
| 2016 | 3,562,413 | 4,067,498 | 4,331,091 | 3,987,001 | 5,496,487 | - | 5,374,164 | |
| 2014 | 2,520,186 | 2,571,042 | -[7] | 2,545,614 | - | 3,055,913 | - | |
About the Ohio Supreme Court
- See also: Ohio Supreme Court
Founded in 1802, the Ohio Supreme Court is the state's court of last resort and has final authority over the interpretation of Ohio law and the Ohio Constitution. It is composed of seven justices: six justices and a chief justice. Most of the cases the court hears are appeals from the twelve district courts of appeals in Ohio. The court was established by Article IV Section 1 of the Ohio Constitution.[8]
Political composition
This was the political composition of the supreme court heading into the 2022 election.
| ■ Pat DeWine | Elected in 2016 | |
| ■ Michael P. Donnelly | Elected in 2018 | |
| ■ Pat Fischer | Elected in 2016 | |
| ■ Jennifer L. Brunner | Elected in 2020 | |
| ■ Sharon L. Kennedy | Elected in 2012 and 2020 | |
| ■ Maureen O'Connor | Elected in 2002, 2010, and 2016 | |
| ■ Melody Stewart | Elected in 2018 |
Campaign finance
The section below contains data from financial reports submitted to state agencies. To view data for each race, click on the appropriate bar below to expand it. The data is gathered and made available by Transparency USA.
Selection
The seven justices of the Ohio Supreme Court are selected through partisan primary and general elections to six-year terms on the court. In the event of a midterm vacancy, the governor appoints a replacement. The appointee serves until the next general election taking place 40 or more days after the vacancy occurred. If re-elected, the justice serves the remainder of his or her predecessor's unexpired term.[9]
Prior to the 2022 election cycle, judges on the Ohio Supreme Court were selected through partisan primaries and nonpartisan general elections, known as the Michigan method.[10][11]
Qualifications
To serve on the supreme court, a justice must be:
- at least six years in the practice of law; and
- under the age of 70.[9]
Selection of the chief justice
The chief justice of the Ohio Supreme Court is chosen by voters at large, serving a full six-year term in that capacity. Ohio is one of seven states in which the chief justice is elected by voters.
Analysis
Ballotpedia Courts: Determiners and Dissenters (2021)
In 2020, Ballotpedia published Ballotpedia Courts: Determiners and Dissenters, a study on how state supreme court justices decided the cases that came before them. Our goal was to determine which justices ruled together most often, which frequently dissented, and which courts featured the most unanimous or contentious decisions.
The study tracked the position taken by each state supreme court justice in every case they decided in 2020, then tallied the number of times the justices on the court ruled together. We identified the following types of justices:
- We considered two justices opinion partners if they frequently concurred or dissented together throughout the year.
- We considered justices a dissenting minority if they frequently opposed decisions together as a -1 minority.
- We considered a group of justices a determining majority if they frequently determined cases by a +1 majority throughout the year.
- We considered a justice a lone dissenter if he or she frequently dissented alone in cases throughout the year.
Summary of cases decided in 2020
- Number of justices: 7
- Number of cases: 436
- Percentage of cases with a unanimous ruling: 67.2% (293)
- Justice most often writing the majority opinion: Justice Maureen O'Connor (32)
- Per curiam decisions: 280
- Concurring opinions: 66
- Justice with most concurring opinions: Justice Sharon Kennedy (18)
- Dissenting opinions: 83
- Justice with most dissenting opinions: Justice Michael Donnelly (26)
For the study's full set of findings in Ohio, click here.
Ballotpedia Courts: State Partisanship (2020)
- See also: Ballotpedia Courts: State Partisanship
Last updated: June 15, 2020
In 2020, Ballotpedia published Ballotpedia Courts: State Partisanship, a study examining the partisan affiliation of all state supreme court justices in the country as of June 15, 2020.
The study presented Confidence Scores that represented our confidence in each justice's degree of partisan affiliation, based on a variety of factors. This was not a measure of where a justice fell on the political or ideological spectrum, but rather a measure of how much confidence we had that a justice was or had been affiliated with a political party. To arrive at confidence scores we analyzed each justice's past partisan activity by collecting data on campaign finance, past political positions, party registration history, as well as other factors. The five categories of Confidence Scores were:
- Strong Democrat
- Mild Democrat
- Indeterminate[12]
- Mild Republican
- Strong Republican
We used the Confidence Scores of each justice to develop a Court Balance Score, which attempted to show the balance among justices with Democratic, Republican, and Indeterminate Confidence Scores on a court. Courts with higher positive Court Balance Scores included justices with higher Republican Confidence Scores, while courts with lower negative Court Balance Scores included justices with higher Democratic Confidence Scores. Courts closest to zero either had justices with conflicting partisanship or justices with Indeterminate Confidence Scores.[13]
Ohio had a Court Balance Score of 7.14, indicating Republican control of the court. In total, the study found that there were 15 states with Democrat-controlled courts, 27 states with Republican-controlled courts, and eight states with Split courts. The map below shows the court balance score of each state.
See also
External links
Footnotes
- ↑ Bolts, "Your State-by-State Guide to the 2022 Supreme Court Elections," May 11, 2022
- ↑ The four states where the partisan balance of the state's highest court could change as a result of the 2022 elections are Ohio, Illinois, Michigan, and North Carolina.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 News 5 Cleveland, "Why you should be paying attention to Ohio Supreme Court races," September 13, 2022
- ↑ Cincinnati.com, "Gov. Mike DeWine signs bill creating partisan races for state's top court," July 1, 2021
- ↑ Politico, "Redistricting, abortion supercharge state Supreme Court races," August 17, 2022
- ↑ Ohio Secretary of State, "Election results," accessed September 16, 2022
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 Ohio held two Supreme Court elections this year.
- ↑ The Supreme Court of Ohio & The Ohio Judicial System, ""Jurisdiction & Authority,"" accessed October 2, 2014
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 American Judicature Society, "Methods of Judicial Selection: Ohio," archived October 3, 2014
- ↑ Ohio Secretary of State, “Ohio Candidate Requirement Guide,” accessed December 7, 2021
- ↑ Ohio General Assembly, “(Senate Bill Number 80),” accessed December 7, 2021
- ↑ An Indeterminate score indicates that there is either not enough information about the justice’s partisan affiliations or that our research found conflicting partisan affiliations.
- ↑ The Court Balance Score is calculated by finding the average partisan Confidence Score of all justices on a state supreme court. For example, if a state has justices on the state supreme court with Confidence Scores of 4, -2, 2, 14, -2, 3, and 4, the Court Balance is the average of those scores: 3.3. Therefore, the Confidence Score on the court is Mild Republican. The use of positive and negative numbers in presenting both Confidence Scores and Court Balance Scores should not be understood to that either a Republican or Democratic score is positive or negative. The numerical values represent their distance from zero, not whether one score is better or worse than another.
Federal courts:
Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals • U.S. District Court: Northern District of Ohio, Southern District of Ohio • U.S. Bankruptcy Court: Northern District of Ohio, Southern District of Ohio
State courts:
Ohio Supreme Court • Ohio District Courts of Appeal • Ohio Courts of Common Pleas • Ohio County Courts • Ohio Municipal Courts • Ohio Court of Claims
State resources:
Courts in Ohio • Ohio judicial elections • Judicial selection in Ohio
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[[Category: Marquee, completed election, 2022]
